Improved System of Methane Synthesis for Radiocarbon Dating

Abstract

An improved design for a catalytic hydrogenation converter which can convert up to 5 liters·atm of CO2 to methane with negligible losses is described. A palladium alloy hydrogen diffusion cell is used for selective removal of excess hydrogen after completion of the reaction. This innovation in purification technique permits quantitative methane recovery over a wide range of sample sizes and significantly reduces the number of man‐hours required to process a sample.